shouldn't my site be in the sandbox?

3 week old site showing in serps

[oaktown]

Maybe I don't grasp what the sandbox is, but I thought it meant that a new site won't show in the serps.

In late April, I registered a domain name. I did not buy one that had expired.

I have 5 PR4 and PR5 inbound links.

Today the site shows up in google with the
cache
similar to
ink to
from the site
contain the term

fields all showing.

Best of all, for my keywords, "blue widget" I'm number 370 out of nearly 9,000,000

I'm not bragging guys, just confused.

Does mean the sandbox is no more?

Thanks in advance

[steveb]

No your situation is what the sandox is. You are indexed and show up for everything. You just have scoring strikes against you that put you at a disadvantage against new pages on an old domain.

[oaktown]

Thanks loads steveb! How long before the "strikes are removed? And when will PR show up and does PR matter really anymore? Thnks in advance!

[crobb305]

Important to consider your industry and the competitiveness I think. You mention your key phrase...is that with quotes or without? It seems sites in very competitive industries stat "sandboxed" longer.

Also, many webmasters have observed their sites ranking very well inititially (within weeks of launch) then suddenly dropping out of the serps all together as it becomes "sandboxed". These were just observations with speculation, of course.

C

[ineedmoney]

I noticed the same thing recently, I purchased a domain in the end of jan. 2006, made most of the site, was indexed within a week, and since the last major google update, I now have a PR4 for this site. At the same time, I have pages years older, with more, similar content backlinks that are still hanging out at PR3...Google is freaking me out... There has got to be something to this.

[Interactive]

Hi,
It would appear that one of our sites is in the Google Sandbox, except for the fact that it has been around for a few years. However, no matter what we do for the site it is not coming up for any competitive terms, when it is doing well on the other major engines. As far as we can see there is nothing on the site that would cause Google to penalise it.

Thanks
Jules

[Ellio]

surely at position 370 you may as well be in the sandbox if it exists.

In my field anything below position 15 is not going to attract any meaningful business.

[oaktown]

Thanks to all of you who responded.

Ellio, you're right. It's page one or page two or nothing.

Here's an update. As of today:

Y
albanian widgets - #510 out of 4,780,000
blue albanian - #15 out of 2,640,000
blue albanian widgets - #24 out of 572,000

G
albanian widgets - #91 out of 6,740,000
blue albanian - #2 out of 6,030,000
blue albanian widgets - #7 out of 604,000

SteveB nay be right and the rug may get pulled out from under me when the true sandbox kicks in, but I do find this to be fascinating.

Any thoughts? Comments?

Thanks in advance.